Nastrond

Muspellz Synir
Moribund Cult

This Swedish black metal duo marks the tenth year of their restless journey with the release of new album "Muspellz Synir." Nastrond - Norse for "corpse shore," that factoid was far too juicy to lay fallow - have cast aside the electronics and atmospherics of their last album for a harsher, more manic sound. "Muspellz Synir" is like a hybrid of the unrelenting assaults of Gorgoroth and Watain combined with the padded-cell atmospheres and lo-fi outsider weirdness of Xasthur. Heavy as hell, with spry riff-heavy sections that almost recall classic Sunlight death metal seamlessly melding to fierce howling winds of dissonance and depressive trudges.

"Muspellz Synir" feels physically weighty and dublike, their sound originates in the stomach deep in your guts and then burbles its way up; a black bile you can taste in the back of your mouth.

- Matthew Moyer